Philip I Philadelphus

Philip I Epiphanes Philadelphus was the King of Syria from 94 to either 83 or 75 BC. He was the son of Antiochus VIII and his wife Tryphaena. After the murder of Seleucus VI in 94 BC, Philip I became king with his twin brother Antiochus XI. He tried unsuccessfully to take Damascus for himself, after which he disappears from the historical record. He initiated monetary reforms, and his coins remained in circulation until the Romans conquered Syria in 64 BC.

About Philip I Philadelphus in brief

Philip I Epiphanes Philadelphus was the King of Syria from 94 to either 83 or 75 BC. He was the son of Antiochus VIII and his wife Tryphaena. He spent his early life in a period of civil war between his father and his uncle Antiochus IX. After the murder of Seleucus VI in 94 BC, Philip I became king with his twin brother Antiochus XI. Philip I tried unsuccessfully to take Damascus for himself, after which he disappears from the historical record; there is no information about when or how he died. He initiated monetary reforms, and his coins remained in circulation until the Romans conquered Syria in 64 BC. Roman authorities in Syria continued to issue coins modeled on Philip I’s coins, including his portrait, until 13 BC. The name Philip means “lover of horses”; it was used by the Antigonid dynasty as a royal name, and was probably meant to signify that they were heirs of the latter. He may have died in 75 BC, giving Antiochus X’s widow Cleopatra Selene and her son Antiochus XIII, who probably took control of the south following the death of AntiochUS XII in 82 BC, a year of claiming the whole kingdom.

He is buried in the city of Beroea, north of Antioch, but according to numismatist Arthur Houghton, he is a stronger candidate because the city was a base of operations for the rulers of the city. All his coins were minted with their portraits on the obverse, with their jugate and jugate coins with their portrait on the reverse. He died in 74 BC, according to Alfred Bellinger, a historian of the Hellenistic period, and may have been buried in Antioch, where he was buried with his family. He had a son, Antiochus XII, who was killed by his brother Demetrius III in 88 BC, and a daughter, Antonious X, who died in 93 BC, but he is not known to have had a daughter. He also had two sons, Seleucaus VI and Antiochus VII, both of whom were killed by their uncle Seleucus VIII in 94BC. His son Seleukus VII was killed in 94 BC, and he was succeeded by his son Antiochuus XI, who took the Syrian capital Antioch. His daughter Cleopatra Selene married Antiochus X, who then killed his brother Seleauus VII in 93 BC. He then died in 95 BC, while his son Antoniaus IX took Antioch in 95  BC.

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Antiochus XII Dionysus Antiochus X Eusebes Antiochus XI Epiphanes Alexander II Zabinas